I2C: A holistic approach to prolong the sensor network lifetime

We present a novel holistic approach (called I²C - Intra-route and Inter-route Coordination) to prolong the sensor network lifetime under the end-to-end delivery delay constraint. I²C is composed of two lifetime balancing modules: (i) the IntraRoute Coordination module that allows the nodes on the same route to balance their nodal lifetimes through adjusting the MAC behaviors collaboratively; (ii) the Inter-Route Coordination module that balances the nodal lifetimes across different routes via adjusting the communication routes. Different from existing works which conduct either intra-route or inter-route lifetime balancing, or a simple combination of the two, I²C leverages the advantages of both techniques with a sophisticated design that emphasizes the awareness and collaboration between two modules. Thus, I²C is able to prolong the network lifetime much more effectively than the state-of-the-art solutions, while guaranteeing the desired delay bound and maintaining a similar level of network power consumption. This has been demonstrated with extensive ns-2 simulation and TinyOS experiment results.